Level up your business security with free, on-demand training and certification. Explore 1Password Academy today →
Forum Discussion
Re: Native Password AutoFill Extension macOS
For my personal life I am using iCloud Keychain to store my passwords and passkeys, for work we use 1Password and I am quite fond of using it. But I do have something I would like to see improved.
Ever since iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma, developers can now integrate with the system as a https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/security/sec6319ac7b9/web#:%7E:text=In%20iOS%2C%20iPadOS%2C%20and%20macOS,is%20built%20on%20app%20extensions., what is that? It is a way to provide credentials like passwords, but more importantly, passkeys to the system, the user will then see all the credentials for a given site from all their password managers, it's really handy! The great thing is, you have already implemented this for the iOS app.
See below how the system UI for credentials came up to let me sign in with a passkey from 1Password:
But sadly, macOS does not get this same feature, instead a browser extension is offered, which works fine, but Apple's popup always pops up first, in my experience anyway. During passkey authentication this is an annoyance: the websites request I sign in with a passkey, so the System UI comes up, but does not find any passkey in iCloud Keychain. So I dismiss the popup, after which the website considers it a failed request. So I have to click the button to try again, and then 1Password comes up with the found passkey.
Another effect is on regular passwords, I have two personal Google account and one for work, this is what happens when I want to sign in with a password:
Needles to say, it's a mess. The system UI always comes above 1Password and it is frustrating. Apparently the system UI can be dismissed with the esc key, but most won't know this "hack".
So please, consider at least giving us the option of integrating 1Password on macOS Sonoma as a Credential Provider like you do on iOS 17. I think it will result in much more seamless experience, one without hacks to use one or the other.
PS: I have checked that Make 1Password the default password manager in this browser, Offer to fill and save passwords, and Offer to save and sign in with passkeys are all enabled within the extension.
1Password Version: 1Password for Mac 8.10.27 (81027003)
Extension Version: 2.21.0
OS Version: macOS 14.4 (23E214)
Browser: Safari
19 Replies
I've been asking for this since 1Password 8 was first released. Hopefully the slightly more positive comments by Travis in the Reddit AMA bode well for this to be implemented in the near(ish) future. I understand it wouldn't completely replace the 1Password Safari extension but it would be fantastic to have for those that continue to experience issues with the extension (which are frustrating to say the least) as either a fallback, or a primary method, with the extension acting as a 'fall-back' for the autofilling types that aren't supported by macOS AutoFill. It would also make signing into desktop apps significantly better. I know Universal AutoFill exists, but there are still consistent issues with that.
- 1P_Dave
Moderator
Thank you for the continued feedback! As Travis mentioned in our Reddit AMA, this is something that we're looking into and we appreciate you letting us know where you'd find this functionality useful!
-Dave
Thanks 1P_Dave
I hope you can really stress to Travis and the other folks actually in charge of potentially implementing features like this that this pain point is growing really long in the tooth. I know you guys are all doing your best to create a great experience for everyone - but this is one instance where the degraded user experience has been consistently pointed out to you all for a number of years now with very little movement on it. Simply saying there are to many limitations to macOS Autofill when there are so many ongoing issues with the Safari Extension is just not good enough; although, I am sure it is unintentional, it really does show a lack of respect for the people who pay to use your App on platforms that you once prioritised.I understand there are priorities and as your company has grown it has naturally reassessed these and (sadly) shifted away from being an 'Apple first' company and started to pivot to Enterprise, Developers and Windows as your primary foci. I think we all (unfortunately) accept that but these obvious pain points are really frustrating to end users. I respectfully don't think enough attention has been paid to issues such as these or the litany of Safari extension issues that you and I have discussed over the years.
The Safari extension as the primary method of autofill was great when there was literally no other option but sadly the issues with it have only grown/multiplied as it has grown more complex. I appreciate the reasons for this are not solely on 1Password - I understand that Apple have imperfect APIs and implementation of APIs that are sub-par in areas but this lack of attention to a clear customer pain point would never have lasted this long in the 1Password 6 and 7 days.
I hope as a company you can remember your roots as an Apple first App and service, and whilst we may no longer be your primary target market maybe you can find a way to better respect the community that at one stage 1Password clearly loved. We still have a lot of affection for your App and Service, and really do want it to be the best it can be across all platforms, we're just tired of being the afterthoughts in terms of user experience that we've clearly been for a number of years now.(To state what I hope is obvious - none of this is directed at you specifically as an individual as I know time and time again over the years all you do is respond to us users on the forum here and try to help us in the best way you can. I know we all really do truly appreciate it. I hope this post can be flagged to senior management.)
EDIT: Just in case it wasn't obvious - macOS Autofill just works. When using Apple Passwords, or Strongbox (which I trialed for a while but didn't adopt as local vault and iCloud vault syncing just wasn't what I wanted) I NEVER had an issue where it failed to fill a username or password. I never had an instance where it bugged out or froze. Compare this to the 1Password Safari Extension just today, where I have had at least 4 times where it has failed to fill a username and password.
Your insistence on maintaining control is actively degrading user experience.
We’re a 1Password Business customer, and we’ll be churning over this issue. The current implementation breaks the flow for passkey-based IDPs that use their own WebAuthN credential providers. Our users constantly have to click “bypass”just to access the Apple-provided UI for every other credential source.
This isn’t a technical limitation, it’s a philosophical one. You already implement the Credential Provider API correctly on iOS. There’s no excuse not to do the same on macOS.
Please get over the need to own the entire experience and implement this properly.
- 1P_SimonH
Community Manager
Hi troutzero,
Thanks for taking the time to give this feedback. If you didn't see our latest Ask Me Anything on Reddit, I wanted to link a response to a question about supporting macOS autofill just to share our current thinking:We've been taking a heavier look at MacOS autofill in the second half of this year to see if the limitations we encountered previously have been alleviated or if they're still present. Although not perfect and not where we ideally want it to be, integrating with native MacOS autofill is looking promising. If we're able to have our concerns addressed with the API to ensure 1Password customers can seamlessly use MacOS autofill without fear of falling through the cracks, I don't see a reason to not integrate in the near future.
